


Twenty-two

by lecksie31



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Cheating, Heartbreak, Love, M/M, Plot What Plot, Song Lyrics, Taylor Swift - Freeform, Weird Plot, happy birthday nana!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-06
Updated: 2019-09-06
Packaged: 2020-10-11 05:30:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20540897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lecksie31/pseuds/lecksie31
Summary: We’re happy free confused and lonely at the same time. It’s miserable and magical, oh yeah. Junmyeon is turning twenty-two today and to be honest, he does not know where he is heading in life. But if there’s anything he is sure of: it’s that he has found the answer to what love means.





	Twenty-two

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nana](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nana/gifts).

> I know you are probably asleep by now and it's pretty much a late gift but I thought that before your birthday ends, I might as well give it. These words are all yours, Nana. Because it's the only thing I can give, my words.
> 
> I wish you all the happiness in this world, princess.

************************************************

**[Everything will be alright  
if you keep me next to you]**

Twenty-two.

Some would say that this is still too young to know that you have found the love of your life, the one you want to marry, the one that you have been looking for all along. But for Junmyeon, twenty-two is the perfect age and he feels lucky to have found his.

**************************************************

At 10, he knew that unlike his peers, he is different.

Instead of liking girls like other boys do, he found himself attracted to the same gender.

He likes boys and he was bullied for it.

But what do they know?

What do all of them know about love?

They were all trying to make him fit inside a box that he does not want to belong to.

Luckily, his parents were very loving and supporting.

He did not need to hide who he was.

*******************************************

**[‘Cause when you’re fifteen**  
**somebody tells you they love you**  
** you’re gonna believe them.]**

Fifteen is an age that is way too young to fall in love, or so they all say.

But Junmyeon knew this was love.

Junmyeon knew that this is something that would last.

He knew that this man telling him ‘I love you’ would be the one that he will marry someday.

So, without hesitation, he blurted out the very same words.

_“I love you too, Chanyeol”_

***************************************

**[Maybe I was naïve,**  
** got lost in your eyes**  
** and never really had a chance]**

It’s what they called a whirlwind romance, the way it came to his life unexpectedly, the way it made him feel everything all at once.

He was a young man experiencing his first love.

He was way too in love for that matter that he did not hear the words that the rest of the world keep telling him.

His friends tell him that he’s dating a player, the head of the football team, after all, has that reputation. But he did not believe them.

What did they know? Chanyeol never failed to remind him that he loves him and he has never once been ashamed of Junmyeon.

Everything between them was the best.

The way they had their first date at the middle of the forest, near a lake where they lied down on the grass and watched the stars on the night sky.

Chanyeol made Junmyeon feel special and for someone who has been looked at differently since he was a child, this made him even more attached to the tall guy with the elfish ears.

But soon enough, his whole world turned upside down.

In a blink of an eye, the relationship he treasured the most was gone.

********************************

**[My mistake I didn’t know to be in love  
you had to fight to have the upper hand]**

Chanyeol cheated on him.

Or maybe it was more like he was the other party all along and he did not know about it.

Who would have known that things would get this messy?

Junmyeon should have listened to his mom when she told him that Chanyeol did not look like a man to be trusted.

And the fact that Junmyeon knows that if it happened again, he would still take the risk and fall in love with him again really hurts.

He gave everything he had to a man that only broke his heart.

And for weeks, Junmyeon wept for the love that he has lost.

He wept for all the memories they have had.

He wept and wept until he thought that his eyes would run dry.

***********************************

At 18, Junmyeon entered college with a happy mindset.

This would be it, a fresh start, far away from all the drama.

But what a small world it was.

As on the first day on his new university, the first thing he saw was his ex-boyfriend wrapping his arms around his best friend.

His best friend who has always been there for him since they were seven.

He moved away before they entered high school.

And to see him here now is really a sick twist of fate.

Junmyeon wanted to cry right there and then, life is just way too cruel for him.

But he had to be strong.

So, he sucked up his tears and went to class.

*********************************

It has been months before Junmyeon finally had the courage to reach out to his best friend.

Over dinner, they talked about the craziest things, flashbacks, getting to know what they missed out on each other’s lives for the few years they were apart.

And the best thing?

It felt like the years fell away as if they were back to being the kids they once were. As if they were meeting for the first time like when they were seven.

It felt magical.

Sehun was magic.

But Chanyeol had to come with his annoying smile and take him away from Junmyeon.

With an apologetic smile, Sehun said goodbye.

**************************

Fast forward to two years later when Sehun broke up with Chanyeol when he caught him cheating with one of his football buddies.

And Junmyeon stayed up with Sehun in his apartment as he cried in his arms. Junmyeon was patting his back, soothing him and telling him everything is going to be alright.

Junmyeon knew it then, he realized it right there and then.

Who would have known it would take the breakup to make Junmyeon realize that it had been him all along?

The morning after, Sehun was shocked when Junmyeon told him that he broke up with Minseok, the guy that he had been dating for the past year.

But Sehun was also weirdly relieved of what that breakup meant.

It meant having Junmyeon by his side more and this thought perked him up even with the heartbreak he was going through. It made him realize that he is glad that he got his loving best friend back in his life.

***************************

**[Do you remember when I said I’d always be there?**  
**Ever since we were ten, baby**  
** when we were out on the playground playing pretend**  
** I didn’t know it back then]**

Junmyeon and Sehun.

Sehun and Junmyeon.

It has always been like that since they were seven.

Years may have come and go but it remained the same.

When they were reunited at 18, everything in Junmyeon’s world went quiet, the kind of quiet that soothes the soul and brings peace to the mind.

On the other hand, Sehun’s world was shaken up real good with everything that happened to him but Junmyeon gave him the solace that he was looking for.

For years, they were each other’s world.

And at twenty-one, Junmyeon finally had the courage to ask Sehun to date him.

Without hesitation, Sehun said yes.

They exchanged ‘I love you’ to each other so easy, it felt like the most natural thing in the world.

_“Jun”, _Sehun whispered in his ear as he intertwined his fingers with him.

_“Yes, Hunnie?”_

_“I love you.”_

And after that, they were lip-locked, not caring about the entire world.

********************************

**[You say I’m crazy cause you don’t think**  
**I know what you’ve done**  
** But when you call me baby**  
** I know I’m not the only one]**

It was Junmyeon’s birthday today.

Twenty-two.

Some would say that this is still too young to know that you have found the love of your life, the one you want to marry, the ones that you have been looking for all along. But for Junmyeon, twenty-two is the perfect age and he feels lucky to have found his.

And so, when he saw Sehun walk towards him, he felt like the luckiest man alive.

Who would have thought that of all people, his best friend will turn out to be the love of his life?

But who would have thought that he would also be his greatest heartbreak?

Who knew that men were all the same?

_“Jun, I can explain”_

_“Explain, my foot. You cheater. You were just the same. I trusted you, I gave everything to you. I----- Take everything and go. Get out of my house this instant.”_

They have lived together for a year now and Sehun just had the audacity to do this to him. What a joke. Was he a joke? Have they been talking behind his back and laughing about him all this time? Was all this a part of their plan?

_“Please, Jun, let me just tell you. It was not like that-----”_

_“You knew, Sehun. You knew everything he did to me. And he did the same to you as well! And still, you chose him? You chose him over us. Did I ever do anything wrong to you? Did I ever make a mistake? Did I----- LEAVE. AND DON’T YOU DARE COME BACK”_

***********************************

**[If ‘I love you’ was a promise**  
** would you break it,**  
** if you’re honest?]**

Broken promises, what is new?

Hearts broken in two.

No, hearts, broken into millions of tiny pieces.

What went wrong?

Rather, what will ever go right?

At twenty-two, he had to be strong.

At twenty-two, he had to realize that some things just go wrong.

At twenty-two, Junmyeon came to understand that bad things always happen.

‘I love you’, words easily said, so easily spoken.

And yet, like a promise, so easily broken.

At twenty-two, Junmyeon had to move on.

At twenty-two, Junmyeon decided that he couldn’t.

Who would have expected that the day Junmyeon turned twenty-two, was the last day he would ever live?

Twenty-two.

END

**Author's Note:**

> As it's a bit rushed, I might edit this out on the confusing parts. Comments are welcome!


End file.
